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Sheriff Villanueva Discusses Proposed 2022-23 County budget 1024 683 SIB Staff

Sheriff Villanueva Discusses Proposed 2022-23 County budget

Sheriff Villanueva Discusses Proposed 2022-23 County budget

On Wednesday, April 20, 2022, Sheriff Alex Villanueva held a press conference to discuss the implications the proposed 2022 – 23 fiscal year county budget will have on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD). 

During a Board of Supervisors’ (BOS) meeting on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, the BOS unveiled a proposed $38.5 billion LA County budget. A total of four new Los Angeles County Departments were created. $100 million in funds were re-allocated from the Sheriff’s Department to Measure J, and the commitment to close Men’s Central Jail without an alternative plan continues. The budget recommendation includes funding for a total of 513 new positions. However, the LASD hiring freeze will continue, and academy classes are restricted to an unsustainable level. 

The Sheriff emphasized that the minimum number of academy classes to keep up with attrition is eight. Yet, the Sheriff’s Department has only had three academy classes per year for the last two years. During 2020 – 2021, 586 sworn and 695 professional staff positions were eliminated from LASD. The total dollar value of those positions was $139,439,000. Sadly, the 1281 positions have not been returned, and neither has the money. The workload, however, has remained the same for all members of the department. During the past ten years, the LASD budget as a percent of the total County budget was 11.7%. The current budget is at a low of 8.9%.

Sheriff Villanueva also mentioned a motion introduced by Supervisors Mitchell and Solis, attempting to oversee LASD’s participation within the Joint Regional Intelligence Center (JRIC), a federal agency. An excerpt of the motion reads: “…as well as reports of potential abuse by the Sheriff of his investigative powers, including investigations and intimidation of the Sheriff’s political enemies.” 

Sheriff Villanueva added that the Attorney General is responsible for holding Sheriffs and District Attorneys throughout California accountable. The Sheriff noted JRIC conducts intelligence and analysis; they’re not a primary investigative body. As a result of their intelligence gathering, they hand over potential crimes to the appropriate agency to investigate them. Everyone there has a ‘need to know and a right to know.’ 

The Sheriff further stated, “Having a political entity (Board of Supervisors) interject themselves in this operation, they’re only doing it for one purpose. They want to see what they’re possibly criminally involved in and what the investigative entities and the intelligence community view of them. So basically, they’re trying to insert the fox into the hen house”.  Sheriff Villanueva concluded the press conference by asking the community to get involved and contact the Board of Supervisors. Tell them to make public safety a priority. 

Press Conference Video

downloadable information

Slides – PDF

Sheriff alex villanueva graphic. portrait of sheriff in tan shirt black tie. Sheriff's uniform, on greeen background with the hall of justice building behind him faded in the back ground.
REMOVING THE SHERIFF BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY 1024 249 SIB Staff

REMOVING THE SHERIFF BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

OPTIONS FOR REMOVING THE SHERIFF… BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY, INCLUDING ABUSE OF THE SUBPOENA PROCESS AND POLITICAL THEATER

April 4, 2022

On October 27, 2020, a motion by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has since been indicted on 20 counts of public corruption, ordered County Counsel, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Civilian Oversight Commission (COC), and “justice advocates” to pursue:

  1. Options for removing or impeaching the Los Angeles County Sheriff, including any necessary changes to the County Charter or County Code.
  2. Legislative changes required to authorize an appointed Sheriff, including the path and timeline required to amend the California Constitution and Los Angeles County Charter as needed.
  3. Legislative changes required to potentially remove certain existing responsibilities of the Sheriff, such as municipal law enforcement services and court services, as well as the authority of the County Board of Supervisors to appoint a County Sheriff.
  4. Any other mitigation measures that could be taken to curtail the Sheriff’s resistance to transparency, accountability, and the faithful performance of duties for the benefit of the residents of the County.

Since then, every move these entities have made involving the Sheriff’s Department has been part of a coordinated effort to achieve this goal.  Today, the Court ruled on one of these coordinated efforts which has been weaponized regarding subpoena appearances.  There are still many unanswered questions, and we will appeal this decision to the Court of Appeal.

It is important to realize the OIG and the COC receive regular updates as to their information requests and have received thousands upon thousands of documents to inform them regarding oversight. These subpoenas are political theater and if successful, I will be the first elected official subjected to this heavy-handed abuse of power, in the State of California.  I seek a remedy in the appellate court to establish a fair process going forward where the rules and standards are clear for all sheriffs and Boards of Supervisors throughout the state in dealing with the new transparency laws should they find themselves in similar disagreement.

I remain committed to transparency and accountability, but under a process which is constitutionally sound, and not a political weapon to attack others, so I will appeal this to the court of appeal and await the outcome.  In the meantime, I will be happy to engage in another public discussion on the issues, if the true motive is informing the public.

SHERIFF ALEX VILLANUEVA

Sheriff alex villanueva graphic. portrait of sheriff in tan shirt black tie. Sheriff's uniform, on greeen background with the hall of justice building behind him faded in the back ground.
Board of supervisors vote to terminate approximately 4000 LASD personnel 1024 249 SIB Staff

Board of supervisors vote to terminate approximately 4000 LASD personnel

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS VOTE TO TERMINATE APPROXIMATELY 4,000 LASD PERSONNEL DURING A TIME WHEN MURDERS HAVE INCREASED OVER 94% AND THERE IS A HIRING FREEZE IN THE DEPARTMENT

February 8, 2022

Today the Board of Supervisors followed through on their threat and voted 4-0 (1 abstention) to form a suicide pact and start the process to fire 4,000 deputies for not being vaccinated.  Showing deliberate indifference to the obvious impact on public safety, the Board hid behind an alleged threat to public safety they couldn’t back up with data.  Tellingly, the Board’s own County Counsel (Rodrigo Castro-Silva) couldn’t offer even a basic legal opinion on the legality of the Board’s motion, or the obvious legal challenges they will face.

The Board, who ignored the comments made by thousands of their constituents today during their meeting, is now seeking to fire the very same personnel who were forced to work in person, exposing themselves to the COVID-19 virus when there was no vaccine, while the Supervisors and most of the workforce were telecommuting from the comfort and safety of their own homes.  Supervisor Kuehl falsely asserted in her motion that LASD employees represented 74% of infected County employees, ignoring the simple fact most infections were during pre-vaccine availability.

This moral failure of leadership represents a curious backtracking of their position on the authority of the Human Resources Director to override the authority of the sheriff.  At the beginning of my tenure they claimed I did not have the authority to hire and fire my workforce.  Now they are claiming the opposite and need to remove that delegated authority from me!

It is important to remember Department personnel who chose not to vaccinate are required to submit to weekly COVID testing, and have committed no administrative offense.

This is nothing more than another politically motivated stunt by the Board, which has no bearing on public health, but will definitely harm public safety.

Alex Villanueva

Sheriff

Sheriff alex villanueva graphic. portrait of sheriff in tan shirt black tie. Sheriff's uniform, on greeen background with the hall of justice building behind him faded in the back ground.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MISSUSE OF CORONER INQUESTS 1024 249 SIB Staff

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MISSUSE OF CORONER INQUESTS

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MISSUSE OF CORONER INQUESTS

Amended October 5, 2021

The Board of Supervisors (Board) has voted to open a coroner inquest on three Deputy-Involved Shooting (DIS) cases (Mr. Dana Mitchell “Malik” Young, Jr., Mr. Samuel Herrera, Jr. and Mr. Dijon Kizzee).  What is difficult to understand is for what logical reason. 

All completed internal criminal investigations are submitted to the Office of the District Attorney – Justice System Integrity Division (JSID), as well the Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Going forward, my intent is to share force investigations handled by the Homicide Bureau with OIG, shortly after they are given to JSID, unless JSID objects to preserve the integrity of the investigation, or on the following grounds: (1) disclosure would endanger the safety of a person involved in the investigation; (2) the completion of the active criminal investigation would be jeopardized; or (3) the privacy interest outweighs the interests of the disclosure.

Additionally, all three of these cases have been publicly posted for some time at LASD.ORG with the official finalized coroner reports, incident summaries, and names of involved deputies.  In the case of Mr. Kizzee, video footage of the DIS and video of the press conference are also available to the public.

Note: Due to the Board’s funding delay tactics, the Department was not yet equipped with body-worn cameras (BWC) at the time of these incidents, therefore no BWC footage exists.   

A coroner inquest can only address the question of circumstance, manner, and cause of death.  In all three of these cases, those questions have already been determined and the cases are with JSID to decide if the deputies’ actions were lawful.  

Although a coroner inquest may provide for good political theater from which to launch political attacks, this will be a colossal waste of tax dollars and will not provide one single shred of new information.  Additionally, these actions may serve to jeopardize any criminal case which could be determined by JSID.  

The Board should address the real problem; why does it take so many years for JSID to make a decision as to the lawfulness of each DIS?  I have already publicly called on the DA to issue a letter of opinion on each DIS within 90 days of the case being submitted, and I ask the Board to join me.

All loss of life is tragic and our hearts go out to the family and friends of Mr. Young, Mr. Herrera, and Mr. Kizzee.  It is painful to see the Board exploit tragedies for their political agenda.

Sheriff Comments BOS Motion 57H 680 380 SIB Staff

Sheriff Comments BOS Motion 57H

SHERIFF’S COMMENTS – BOS Motion 57-H

10/27/2020

Good Morning and thank you for allowing me this opportunity to share my voice with you and the community.

Regarding this motion, I can agree with two things; accountability and transparency are of the utmost importance. The facts show, I have been more transparent, more accountable, and have offered greater access to the members of our communities than any prior LA County Sheriff.

As you recall, SB 1421 now requires police agencies across the state to release documents that were once considered confidential. As a result, these requests have skyrocketed and the previous administration did not leave any infrastructure in place to meet the avalanche of requests. We requested funding for required compliance staffing and software on six separate occasions from the previous CEO, but were denied each time. Providing this funding will greatly increase the speed and efficiency of these requests.

Transparency and accountability do not come cheap, they are expensive. This is why I have fought so hard regarding budgetary issues. My vision for changing the organizational culture is much more difficult when we are forced to eliminate non-essential positions due to a lack of funding.

The vast majority of problems which have been raised regarding transparency and accountability can be easily solved with a new Memorandum of Agreement between the Sheriff’s Department and the Office of the Inspector General. I whole-heartedly commit to work with you in good faith to achieve this goal.

I request the Board direct the Inspector General to report back on all of the deputy involved shootings that he has participated in since 2014, at the inception of his office. His office has been in each walk-through with the homicide investigators. They’ve attended each Critical Incident Review. Every single Executive Force Review Committee. And, have received the entire deputy involved shooting packet that is provided to the Justice System Integrity Division of the District Attorney’s office. But we have never ever heard back from the Inspector General on a single one of these incidents. Which is important for us, because in case we’re doing something wrong, we need a different perspective, how we can improve, either our service to the community or the quality of our investigations, and to date, we have never received that. All that being said, we are a County family and when there is collaboration we can do great things. Case in point… Body Worn Cameras!

Before the Board votes on this motion, I urge each supervisor to meet with me privately. Let’s set aside the past and work out our differences. This is what good leaders do in trying times like these, because elected office is not about our own likes and dislikes, it is about the people we were elected to serve. I look forward to finding common ground we can all stand together on in the interest of public safety and fiscal responsibility.

Thank you for your time.